KL Campus to present new course due to overwhelming demand

Posted By Northern College News Release (Timmins Times)

January 26, 2010

Northern College's Surface Diamond Driller Assistant Common Core Program is preparing for its 5th program, slated to run April 26 to June 30, 2010 at the Kirkland Lake campus. There has been an overwhelming amount of interest in the program over the past 6 months, due to a large number of local drilling projects and employment opportunities for qualified driller helpers.

Despite slow times last year, the exploration industry seems to be bouncing back to an extremely busy level. The current high price of gold has created a modern day "gold rush," resulting in many surface diamond drilling projects in the area getting underway. Bradley Bros. Limited, a local drilling company, has been kept extremely busy. "The mineral exploration industry is experiencing a recovery from the 2008 lows and commodity prices are expected to rise in the coming year. The gold price in particular is at historic highs and is also expected to remain stable and rise in the future."

According to Andy Attwater, Human Resources Manager at Cabo Drilling Ontario Corp. based in Kirkland Lake, there is a need for more common core qualified drillers and driller helpers for the busy season ahead. "The drilling industry is on the upswing. The Kirkland lake area is very busy at the moment with more drilling to start in the near future, both underground and surface." Andy also said that qualified driller helpers were difficult to find locally. "We are employing common core certified helpers from other provinces now to meet the demand at the moment." There is also a higher demand for helpers to replace retiring drillers.

The training program is based on the modularized common core training standards and guidelines developed by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) and Canadian Diamond Drilling Association (CDDA). There are only 12 seats available to ensure top quality training.

The program is delivered in Kirkland Lake, and made possible due in large part to the partnerships created with Cabo Drilling (Ontario) Corp., Bradley Bros. LTD., Boart Longyear, Forage Orbit Garant Drilling, the Canadian Diamond Drilling Association, Mindoka Technologies, Canadian Driller Training and Atlas Copco, along with local suppliers like Guillevin International and T.I.M.E.

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